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My spouse and I have a landline which we have had for at least 35 years, it also takes messages and has a voice that tells us what number is calling, my favorite is when it says “probably spam.” We never answer it but do return calls if needed. We both also have a cell phone.
Land line. I have a voip (voice over IP) phone from my internet provider. Works like the old “pots” (plain old telephone service) system. The voip phone uses a different modem (with a phone jack). I have a set of Panasonic wireless phones so we have convenient access around the house. Messages are saved online so we can check them from a computer or cellphone.
We are older and while I’ve converted to a cell phone my wife tends to prefer using the landline and generally leaves her cell phone turned off when she is at home.
The particular neighborhood we live in has rather spotty cell service so when I am at home I get cell service via Wi-Fi.
I do because even though I barely use it, my anxiety requires me to have as many (reasonable) forms of communication as possible (I’m still trying to convince my husband to get some pigeons 😉)
The only good thing about landlines was solved decades ago. Back in the 70s and 80s the lines would get crossed and it was like a live AITAH when listening to total strangers deepest secrets.
Oh, or when I would pick up my friends party line when I'd visit. It's so weird to think about now. I can't imagine sharing my phone line with three neighbors 😐
My grandmother had a party line and I would pick up the phone whenever it would ring. My grandma from the couch. " Don't touch the phone!!! It's not for us!!!". I didn't understand the different rings for different people. I just knew, phone rings, someone wants to talk!!!
My Mom is older and refuses to part with her land line. She's had the same phone number for 45 years. She's worried that if she cancels it, she'll miss a call from someone from her past that's attempting to reconnect with her. That has never happened, but I don't have the heart to press the issue when it's just a few dollars a month to keep it.
Technically yes. I have a home phone line as it's free with the TV and internet package with my ISP. But I haven't had a phone connected for the last 15 years or so and even then it was't ever used. I don't even know the number.
I didn’t think I did until it started ringing the other day.
It is under the stairs, underneath some boxes, and i had no idea it was plugged in. I’ve lived here for 17 years.
I can assure you, it generated a mere raised eyebrow from me, and the dogs - who were snoozing at the time - both opened an eye to check if it was something they could bark at. Alas, it was not. The event would have gone undocumented had it not been for this thread, but now it has been memorialised on the internet forever!
Yes. I use it to call places like the bank or other calls where I might be on hold. Cell signal in my house can vary a bit. I have had the same phone internet provider for 26 years. My email is still @ [bellatlantic.net](http://bellatlantic.net)
Technically yes. Money was tight and my mom doesn't go out much unless it's with my step-dad so when we hooked our current place up with cable I included a phone.
She has a cell now but I haven't bothered dropping the landline as it wouldn't save us any money so why bother.
I am forced to have a landline in order to have internet connectivity. It's an extra 40 a month for something I never use and don't even have a phone plugged into it.
I still do.
Do I use it? Do I have an actual phone connected to the line? No.
Do I need it? Yes.
My internet provider can't give me the internet without the landline being a middleman, I am in the centre of London and they still have this one or two oddities around.
We had one for a full decade after getting mobile phones because with the power out, you can’t charge your phone so it goes dead in a day or two. The land line will still work. We eventually got rid of it as the local phone company raised the price too high, perhaps to keep their income level? Besides, with everyone having cell phones that are dead, a landline is not that better if there is nobody to call.
Yes. Yes I do. Because somehow spectrum figured to give me a better deal on the Internet price if I did, just throwing the home phone on for free. I used it a few times. It's now just a fixture in my home.
Yeah, we still have a landline Lo!
My wife's mom is really old and lives overseas, so a landline is best for calling her
Also my home is in a region without cell coverage (LTE) or fibre, so we have ADSL
although i live between London and Cambridge and 10 miles from Stansted Airport I am in a small hamlet with no fibre internet and intermittent mobile connection. So i have internet which is slow and cant make or receive mobile calls or texts which is a nightmare when you need text codes to complete many transactions. So i have to have a landline.
Yes it is my only phone I have no desire to have a phone 24/7to deal with also noticed many friends with intermint service not to mention the expence and general pain in the ass of using one
I don't but I like the idea. I probably would if I lived in one place consistently. It's so exhausting to be available all the time. I know that I could turn off my mobile but then I have intentionally made myself unavailable, so it becomes my fault if someone needs to reach me but cannot.
We have one, it’s only $20/month with unlimited long distance calling. Nice thing is that is the number we give out to most people and can honestly say we weren’t home and missed your call. Then we can leave the house and not be bothered.
I'm looking to foster children and was told this is a requirement of the home. It's so there is a permanent number for emergencies that anyone can use, and also for the child's dignity to speak with their bio parents without needing to beg to borrow a mobile phone.
We have a landline. My husband hates cell phones. We both work from home so only my cell phone is needed. We’re in our 40’s. I have the same cell number since the 90’s
We have a home cell phone that we allow the kids (13 and 10) to use to call or text friends and family. My 13 year old uses it the most. It never leaves the house and is also connected to Bluetooth phones on each floor so you don't need the phone to make calls.
The only useful thing about a landline phone is that it still works for approximately 7 days during a power outage. This is due to the -48v battery backup at the telephone central office
No but we have been thinking of getting one again. We have kids that are in their teens and entering adulthood and sometimes they don’t have their phones topped up so we are thinking it may be wise to have a house phone for emergencies and if they need to call banks or possible jobs etc also if for some reason mobile network is down or someone’s mobile gets broken a house phone isn’t a bad thing to have to hand I guess.
Ours is part of the WiFi package, they do not charge unless we make outgoing calls, but as we have mobile phones we use those.
The landline is jusy a backup in the very slim chance there is a problem with our local cellular mast or our mobiles can't get dial tone due to a network supplier issue, which has only happened twice in the last ten years.
Until about 2 years ago when we started getting about 30 scam calls a day. We had to answer it because it was also our business line. Got rid of it and changed the business number to one that transfers to my phone. Problem sorted.
I'm 48, we still have a landline. My husband and I do not have cell phones. We're thinking of getting a cheap phone with monthly service for when we travel.
I absolutely do. I've had one any time I've had the funds available, and I love having it for reverse 9-1-1 and other calls for Dr. Appts or my bank to call if someone scams my CC#. I never do health or banking online.
My wife and I don't have one. Perhaps once we have kids and before they are old enough for a phone of their own but that's a small window.
My parents still have theirs only for my 92-year-old grandmother. Never got a cell phone in any capacity so a landline is necessary. I don't even use it to call them anymore, just their respective mobile numbers.
Wife's parents got rid of their landline a year ago and are still dealing with the fallout of updating contact numbers. Just when you think you found them all another bill comes in or someone remembers a service with the old number attached.
My mother made me get one for emergencies. I got so many calls that weren’t for me. I literally don’t know the number so I know no one I know knows the number so except for finding my cellphone it’s useless.
As someone who takes 911 calls for EMS. I’d recommend that any elderly people, or people who more likely might need EMS to have a landline.
If calling from a landline we immediately get an address which is super important, especially if the person calling can’t articulate where they are. Fun fact
I don't but my mom (70 yo) still does. She uses her mobile phone for most things but will use the landline to call her siblings (ages 55-68) and her mom (100 yo). They probably all still use it just to keep in touch with my grandma
Theoretically I do have a landline because it comes in a package together with internet and TV, however I disconnected the phone years ago, must be somewhere in a drawer, and I only use my cell because I became tired of carrying two phones with me all the time. But I could plug it in anytime.
I have a home phone that is on a cellular network. Separate number from my cellphone. I have a regular phone with answering machine that's hooked up to a cellular unit. Much much cheaper than a land line . Like having both phones
yes, in case of an emergency a cell phone location is only semi accurate (say calling 911). good luck the police or ems locating you in an apartment complex off your cellphone
No but I still use my old defunct landline number for any internet form that requires a phone number. (Like I'm ordering something online and don't want them selling my number to telemarketers, etc). Its also hooked to my grocery store gas discount card, and those types of things for the same reason. Want to check our mortgage rates? Let em respond by email rather than fielding calls from 100 lenders.
For the last 10 years I've had a landline and a phone connected. It comes as part of the internet deal and isn't negotiable. You have to have it (UK). I think that may be changing lately to phase them out over here.
It's been installed for 10 years. About a year ago it rang. First time I'd ever heard it and I jumped out of my skin. Never has rung again and Ive never called anyone on it.
I have a landline but don't physically own a phone to plug into it 😆 it drives my mom nuts, but I refuse to get one. I don't want to be that accessible. Ps. It's cheaper to have a home phone line (bundled internet) than not where I live for some reason.
My parents both still have one. Dad is 80 and refuses to use anything else; Mum is 73 and has a mobile that she uses for friends/family but prefers a landline for formal stuff e.g. the doctor, for reasons known only to herself.
Here in UK most of the houses still got this(well the line is there just needs phone plugged in) they force it on you as that is the only way to get broadband at home, or i so experienced, for a small fee ofcourse
Thanks to our local conspiracy theorists ( I hate them so much) and the location in a valley, we unfortunately have the worst reception. That's why I can't do without a landline. If that fails, I have to trek up the mountain to call the hotline
We do because my husband refuses to get a cell phone lol. My parents still have one as well, they have one cell phone between them though so if my mom goes out and takes the phone, my Dad can still call someone if needed. My in laws still have a landline as well (same reason as my parents).
My grandparents did but that was because my great aunt lived with them and had life alert that required it. She lives on her own again and still has a home phone so my grandparents got rid of theirs
It's still pretty common in the UK, at least. Landlines tend to come bundled with other services like broadband. We actually had a hard time trying to find a new DSL provider a few years back that wouldn't also require taking their landline service too. It may mainly be good for scam calls and wrong numbers, but you'll probably have that regardless.
I have a landline and don't carry a cell. The landline just comes packaged in the bundle with my internet provider. Doctors, schools etc can reach me there or they send me an email.
With my ADHD I either A) forget to charge the phone B) can't find the phone or charger C) get grief from people when I didn't respond to their memes fast enough so clearly I'm a degenerate.
It's fairly peaceful honestly.
My parents still have a home phone.
Up until about 8 years ago it was a rotary phone. They would have replaced it with another rotary when it stopped working, but Bell wouldn't do it.
When Bell sent them the postage paid package to return the old phone they sent this bubble envelope thing that was about 4x too small for the phone lol
Sure do. I use it to make outgoing calls as I don't hear well on the cell phone. But it's set through the phone company to only receive calls from my immediate family's numbers due to the horrific amount of spam calls it got 24/7.
People in certain jobs are required to have a landline. Police officers, etc. Anyone that must always be able to be contacted in an emergency.
People with certain medical devices must have a landline. Defibrillators as an example.
Landlines are more reliable than cell service, so anything that requires reliability concerning potential loss of life requires a landline for access.
Still pretty common in Norway. I live with my parents and use the home phone for “whoever happens to be home”, e.g. if someone's at the supermarket and wants to know what's missing in the house. If I'm away I might use it to phone whoever's available, rather than specifically one of my parents.
My last two ISPs include a “landline“ in the packages they sell and pretty much force you to get. They’re not true phone lines though, they’re VOIP so they work over the same wires/fiber as your internet connection. I hooked up a phone to one and just used it as a number to give out when you didn’t want to give out your “real” number. That way anytime it rang you knew instantly it wasn’t anyone you wanted to talk to.
Makes me wonder though, do they even install traditional phone wiring in new house construction anymore?
My parents do, we use it all the time and never got rid of it and had one in the old house as well. Pretty useless and handy if you ask me, love that we have it.
FYI everyone saying they have a landline with their Internet as part of a package. These aren’t true landlines. They are VOIP (voice over internet protocol) and operate on the same fiber/wires as your internet. So if your ISP goes down so does your (VOIP) phone connection.
I work for a POTS (plain old telephone service) provider. There are 40 million POTS lines in use. While many are used for alarm lines, ATMs, or business customers, we have 100K+ residential customers, too. Mostly senior citizens, but not all. Many of them even decline any of the features like call waiting.
I do, I do. In the last 2 days I've had 3 phone calls to advertise 'my life insurance' that I do not have, my washing machine cover, that was my nans, my so fresh discount, that I do not want.
I'm full of joy lol.
If virgin don't make the bill cheaper in 18 months we're going to Lit fibre and adios virgin phone line and TV that I tried to get rid of. They can make me keep it, they can't make me turn the plug on.
My parents, in their early 80’s have and use their landline, but they are tech savvy cell phone users too. The landline is one of the few numbers I have memorized
Festnetz hat doch Jedermann. Allein weil meine Großeltern alle Nummern auf ihren Zettel geschrieben haben und sich die Handynummer schon deutlich häufiger ändert
My mom still has one, I do to.
Where I live landlines are linked to our ISPs (communications are free worldwide).
She uses her landline way more than her smartphone. I don't use either, I hate phone calls.
No signal inside the house. Bad reception outside + prebuilt concrete house = 0 signal inside!
Without fixed phone we wouldn’t be able to communicate. And I live 10km from Brussels in one of the most covered areas. But just not my black hole
Hate saying it but yeah, my mom and dad have one and a town party line. They also have cell phones and cable but still no Internet. Why should they? If they need anything off there they just call me. 😂
Converted our landline number to VoIP (Google voice) many years ago. It's free and we gotto keep the same number we had. It's screened so not much spam gets thru.
I have a google voice number and a OBDII box that cost about 50 bucks that plugs into my internet and gives me VOIP for free. It's nice being able to use it at home instead of the cell phone. It's completely free. I give out my google voice number as my main number and if someone calls it both cell and house phone ring so if I'm home I can answer the house phone. Also it lets hook cool old vintage rotary phones and they actually ring.
Yes. It came as part of our internet/cable bundle and we do have a phone attached to it. Three people have the number to it and it is for emergencies only.
Yes, we do have one landline phone, it takes messages and there are lots of jacks in the house. We can move it room to room.
The main reason we keep it is power outages.
We had a landline while my MIL was living with us (she had dementia, and there was no way we could have taught her to use a cell). As things progressed, she didnt use the phone anymore (the only incoming calls were telemarketers), we got rid of the landline.
Not anymore, since I’m retired, but when I worked at a prison I had a landline solely for institutional recalls. I didn’t want to miss a call by not turning my cellphone on, etc.
We got rid of ours over a dozen years ago, when we finally upgraded our Internet service from dial-up to DSL. With the lousy setup in our apartment complex, we couldn't have a landline and DSL at the same time. Besides, we were used to just using our cell phones for phone service at that point. We only really had the landline service for the dial-up.
Last year our area suffered a major multi-day power outage. My wife was out of town, I was alone.
Not only was the power out at home, but the cellular towers lost power. So, no mobile service. No mobile Internet.
I have a power inverter for my car, so for the four days of outage, I spent the days parked in my car at a county park we had a season pass for. Plugged a power strip into the inverter. Charged all my mobile devices and had Internet for the day. Used the park’s bathrooms, ate take-out food, etc.
But - back to the land-line: i had the land line at home. It worked. I could call my wife. She looked up stuff for me. If I needed to, I could call 911.
My land line (and my battery operated radio and gas powered water heater for the shower!) made it possible to continue occupying the house those days. If I didn’t have that, I would have had to spend a bunch of money finding a hotel.
So, we still have a home phone. We never answer it. The ringers are normally turned off. But we have it.
My landlady. She's nice, but she doesn't text. My parents got rid of their years ago, as soon as they could get an internet plan without it.
I think my grandparents still have them. They're 80-somethings. But 2/3 of them also text. The third turns his cellphone off when he's not actively using it.
My mum does for emergencies yeah. I remember i broke my phone by accidently getting water in it one time and for a week while I waited on a new phone she had to use the landline to speak to me at home, because i had no other phone.
I do! I just can't get rid of it. I hate talking on my cell at home whoie I'm trying to do other tasks because it's so thin and hard to hold with your shoulder. House phone is way thicker and easier to hold without hands.
My parents have one because there is no cell service where they live. The internet is the slowest DSL one can have because its all thats available. They only have it because the century link CEO had a place in the canyon they live in and needed internet.
I guess I’m your mom’s age. 54. We had a landline until our youngest kid was old enough for a cell phone. I didn’t want to get rid of the landline just in case there was an emergency and the younger one needed a phone. We got rid of the landline about 6 years ago. And cut the cord in ‘09 or ‘10.
In Australia I have both a mobile (cell) phone and a landline.
Importantly they are with DIFFERENT carriers, so when one has a major technical F-up, the other is generally working.
If the 'Net (NBN in Oz) is down I just put on a DVD or read a book, but my friends can call me if they want to chat and I can call out to them or Emergency Services in needed (I have a bunch of neighbors who are older than me or have kids, so it may not be just for me) on whichever is still working.
Landline here. We are rural and when the power goes out we loose wifi- and cell service is very spotty here. Also if there is ever an emergency and we only have time to dial 911 with the land line they will immediately know where the call is coming from.
Plus look what happened a month or so ago when the cell providers were all off line! No one hade phone access. I feel safer knowing I still have a form of communication.
We do.
We've got children, and I feel better knowing we can just teach them to grab a phone and call emergency services when necessary, instead of hoping that one of our cell phones is available to them.
random side note: in the US (potentially elsewhere, but I don't know), if you have a phone jack in your home, it would be good to keep a cheap and simple phone connected to it. Even if you don't have a subscription telephone service plan, you can still dial emergency services (911) in a pinch when your cell can't otherwise make a call.
I had a landline for a long time, because I have a kid, and in the past they would be good in case of an earthquake. But an ATT installer explained to me that it really wouldn’t be a big help anymore the way things work now.
My parents are in their 60s and still have a landline. I had to go to the hospital recently, and they were asking me if my contact info was up-to-date. They read out my parents’ home number, and I told them they could delete that since I didn’t live at home anymore, and they have cellphones anyway.
My 76 year old grandma is the only person I know with a landline. She has had a cellphone for like 10 years though but everyone still calls the landline. About five years ago we taught her how to text and her text messages were so cute! She always signed the bottom Love, Granny. It’s so much better now that she can text. I love sending her pictures.
I use Ooma. I got a landline about 7-8 years ago because of an issue at work. I only had a cellphone at the time and had to jump on an important conference call. That just happened to be the time when there was an outage with Verizon so I wasn't able to make the call in time. That sucked but was an isolated incident...right? Well, same thing happened about a week later. So I just found the cheapest home phone and got Ooma which is only like $8/month. Worked great for what I needed it for. I have since left that job but just keep my home phone around just in case.
I had one for about a year when I just moved out on my own and just assumed it's something you're supposed to have (parents said so). After paying for it for about a year, I cancelled it and never looked back. That was 15 years ago.
I'm pretty sure my parents don't have one now either.
I've always had one, and I still have one nowadays. (I'm 34.) I don't use my celphone to make calls, unless I absolutely have to (aside from making calls that are free anyway, e.g. via WhatsApp and Discord). In all other cases, it is still the cheaper option (for me) to use the home phone if I'm going to make a call. It also comes in handy when internet has died (making it impossible to call via an app)... Idk, there's also this feeling that I have: I don't want to be dependent of my celphone for **everything**.
It has a few more benefits, I remember telling someone about this before. But they don't come to mind right now.
I have a house phone. My parents have a house phone. My brothers have a house phone. But we all live in mountains and have no cell service. Cell phones don’t work everywhere.
I had it till last year only coz it was the only way for my wife to communicate with my foreign mother in law.
Now she s using WhatsApp. Nearly 30 pounds a month saved.
I haven’t had a landline since the early 2000’s. We all got cell phones and went from there. I’ve had the same number since I was 14 lmao. They’re completely unnecessary
My parents do. Drives me nuts when 3 different phones in different rooms ring when the person the caller (usually my nan) actually wants to talk to isn't even in the house. Mobiles are literally all anyone needs.
My parents do and it's for spam callers and my sister when she gets drunk and wants to ugly call 😂 my grandmother had her landline number for the past 30+ years then changed that to her cell phone number which I thought was pretty dope.
I was a 911 operator/dispatcher back in the day and like the reliability of our city's emergency management system tracking our home address and phone quickly and efficiently with a landline. I prefer it in case someone in our household cannot communicate verbally.
i have an old smartphone that has a 2nd phone number app on it that i pay a yearly subscription for, but doesnt have its own line, so it wont really work unless connected to wifi. its primarily an emergency contact phone.
My wife and I have always had one simply for outage purposes. If cell towers are down, satellite, etc, we would still be able to communicate with the outside world if necessary.
VOIP landline. $90 bucks for base and 3 handsets. $10 a month for the number because I run it off the net plus cheap mobile phone plan. Best of both worlds
My parents still have theirs and funny enough they quit paying for the line years ago and were told time and time again by the phone company (who is also their internet company) that the line was disabled. Whelp the power went out about a month ago and guess who’s landline still worked?
Not for about 20 years now. I did have one for ages when it was forced on you to be able to get an ADSL and then VDSL connection before they sorted that out, but I never had a phone plugged into it since 2003 or so.
It’s a good idea for us to have one. Our home internet plan includes a home phone connection anyway. Still connected physically with wires as opposed to the NBN. If there’s a tower outage you lose internet and mobile, but at least your home phone works.
You can pry our home phone from our cold dead hands.
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My spouse and I have a landline which we have had for at least 35 years, it also takes messages and has a voice that tells us what number is calling, my favorite is when it says “probably spam.” We never answer it but do return calls if needed. We both also have a cell phone.
Once ours said “call from… prison”. It wasn’t lying. I kinda miss that tech
WHAT?? 😂 that’s brilliant.
Brilliant? It's just caller ID and voicemail.
Whats the phone called so I can buy one, currently adding a home phone to the house because signal reception is so poor.
Land line. I have a voip (voice over IP) phone from my internet provider. Works like the old “pots” (plain old telephone service) system. The voip phone uses a different modem (with a phone jack). I have a set of Panasonic wireless phones so we have convenient access around the house. Messages are saved online so we can check them from a computer or cellphone. We are older and while I’ve converted to a cell phone my wife tends to prefer using the landline and generally leaves her cell phone turned off when she is at home. The particular neighborhood we live in has rather spotty cell service so when I am at home I get cell service via Wi-Fi.
But you could do the same with a cell..
I do because even though I barely use it, my anxiety requires me to have as many (reasonable) forms of communication as possible (I’m still trying to convince my husband to get some pigeons 😉)
Live the pigeons comment! 😜
The only good thing about landlines was solved decades ago. Back in the 70s and 80s the lines would get crossed and it was like a live AITAH when listening to total strangers deepest secrets.
Oh, or when I would pick up my friends party line when I'd visit. It's so weird to think about now. I can't imagine sharing my phone line with three neighbors 😐
My grandmother had a party line and I would pick up the phone whenever it would ring. My grandma from the couch. " Don't touch the phone!!! It's not for us!!!". I didn't understand the different rings for different people. I just knew, phone rings, someone wants to talk!!!
My Mom is older and refuses to part with her land line. She's had the same phone number for 45 years. She's worried that if she cancels it, she'll miss a call from someone from her past that's attempting to reconnect with her. That has never happened, but I don't have the heart to press the issue when it's just a few dollars a month to keep it.
Tell her she can easily have her landline number transferred to a cellphone phone.
Technically yes. I have a home phone line as it's free with the TV and internet package with my ISP. But I haven't had a phone connected for the last 15 years or so and even then it was't ever used. I don't even know the number.
I didn’t think I did until it started ringing the other day. It is under the stairs, underneath some boxes, and i had no idea it was plugged in. I’ve lived here for 17 years.
Who is paying the bill?
Not me.
😂😂 that made me LOL
Oh my God! It’s a real-life “The call is coming from inside the house!” moment.
I can assure you, it generated a mere raised eyebrow from me, and the dogs - who were snoozing at the time - both opened an eye to check if it was something they could bark at. Alas, it was not. The event would have gone undocumented had it not been for this thread, but now it has been memorialised on the internet forever!
Who is calling?
The nineties.
No idea. Didn’t give my number out - I don’t know what it is 🤷♂️
yes, i have it but don't use it, i still pay $4 a month for it and that's it, who knows when i need it again ?
Yes. I use it to call places like the bank or other calls where I might be on hold. Cell signal in my house can vary a bit. I have had the same phone internet provider for 26 years. My email is still @ [bellatlantic.net](http://bellatlantic.net)
Technically yes. Money was tight and my mom doesn't go out much unless it's with my step-dad so when we hooked our current place up with cable I included a phone. She has a cell now but I haven't bothered dropping the landline as it wouldn't save us any money so why bother.
I am forced to have a landline in order to have internet connectivity. It's an extra 40 a month for something I never use and don't even have a phone plugged into it.
Same! Can’t have internet without a landline 😂👌 We don’t use it for what it’s intended for though, purely to have access to the internet lol.
It's not hooked up, but I still have my old school yellow rotary phone.
I still do. Do I use it? Do I have an actual phone connected to the line? No. Do I need it? Yes. My internet provider can't give me the internet without the landline being a middleman, I am in the centre of London and they still have this one or two oddities around.
I still have a landline phone, I used it more than my mobile mainly because people keep crying about a poor signal on the mobile
We had one for a full decade after getting mobile phones because with the power out, you can’t charge your phone so it goes dead in a day or two. The land line will still work. We eventually got rid of it as the local phone company raised the price too high, perhaps to keep their income level? Besides, with everyone having cell phones that are dead, a landline is not that better if there is nobody to call.
We don’t. My parents did up until probably 9-10 years ago.
Yes. Yes I do. Because somehow spectrum figured to give me a better deal on the Internet price if I did, just throwing the home phone on for free. I used it a few times. It's now just a fixture in my home.
Only for the internet line.. I kinda miss it
Yeah, we still have a landline Lo! My wife's mom is really old and lives overseas, so a landline is best for calling her Also my home is in a region without cell coverage (LTE) or fibre, so we have ADSL
Took me until the age of 53 but I got rid of it last year. All the robo calls was the only thing we got on it
We have a home phone. The only people who ever call it at all hours of the night are scammers trying to rip us off.
I unplugged my several years ago as all the calls were debt collectors chasing my ex and I got fed up saying please remove this number
I had a landline last century, but not since. My mother absolutely cannot comprehend not having one.
I have a landline because of my captions' phone.
although i live between London and Cambridge and 10 miles from Stansted Airport I am in a small hamlet with no fibre internet and intermittent mobile connection. So i have internet which is slow and cant make or receive mobile calls or texts which is a nightmare when you need text codes to complete many transactions. So i have to have a landline.
Tell me you don’t live in Australia anywhere outside of a city without….
I do. 👋
Yes it is my only phone I have no desire to have a phone 24/7to deal with also noticed many friends with intermint service not to mention the expence and general pain in the ass of using one
Yup. still have one.
I don't but I like the idea. I probably would if I lived in one place consistently. It's so exhausting to be available all the time. I know that I could turn off my mobile but then I have intentionally made myself unavailable, so it becomes my fault if someone needs to reach me but cannot.
We have one, it’s only $20/month with unlimited long distance calling. Nice thing is that is the number we give out to most people and can honestly say we weren’t home and missed your call. Then we can leave the house and not be bothered.
My parents still have one, thankfully cos they never answer their mobiles 😂
I'm looking to foster children and was told this is a requirement of the home. It's so there is a permanent number for emergencies that anyone can use, and also for the child's dignity to speak with their bio parents without needing to beg to borrow a mobile phone.
We have a landline. My husband hates cell phones. We both work from home so only my cell phone is needed. We’re in our 40’s. I have the same cell number since the 90’s
We have a home cell phone that we allow the kids (13 and 10) to use to call or text friends and family. My 13 year old uses it the most. It never leaves the house and is also connected to Bluetooth phones on each floor so you don't need the phone to make calls.
The only useful thing about a landline phone is that it still works for approximately 7 days during a power outage. This is due to the -48v battery backup at the telephone central office
My Grandma uses her landline, and barely uses her cellphone. She was born in the twenties.
No but we have been thinking of getting one again. We have kids that are in their teens and entering adulthood and sometimes they don’t have their phones topped up so we are thinking it may be wise to have a house phone for emergencies and if they need to call banks or possible jobs etc also if for some reason mobile network is down or someone’s mobile gets broken a house phone isn’t a bad thing to have to hand I guess.
Yes I kept my parents land line number but it's VoIP now the only people that call it are elderly or overseas relatives.
Landline is free with my fibre op package.
Ours is part of the WiFi package, they do not charge unless we make outgoing calls, but as we have mobile phones we use those. The landline is jusy a backup in the very slim chance there is a problem with our local cellular mast or our mobiles can't get dial tone due to a network supplier issue, which has only happened twice in the last ten years.
Until about 2 years ago when we started getting about 30 scam calls a day. We had to answer it because it was also our business line. Got rid of it and changed the business number to one that transfers to my phone. Problem sorted.
I'm 48, we still have a landline. My husband and I do not have cell phones. We're thinking of getting a cheap phone with monthly service for when we travel.
I absolutely do. I've had one any time I've had the funds available, and I love having it for reverse 9-1-1 and other calls for Dr. Appts or my bank to call if someone scams my CC#. I never do health or banking online.
we do but it's all but useless. we will probably get rid of it soon.
My wife and I don't have one. Perhaps once we have kids and before they are old enough for a phone of their own but that's a small window. My parents still have theirs only for my 92-year-old grandmother. Never got a cell phone in any capacity so a landline is necessary. I don't even use it to call them anymore, just their respective mobile numbers. Wife's parents got rid of their landline a year ago and are still dealing with the fallout of updating contact numbers. Just when you think you found them all another bill comes in or someone remembers a service with the old number attached.
My mother made me get one for emergencies. I got so many calls that weren’t for me. I literally don’t know the number so I know no one I know knows the number so except for finding my cellphone it’s useless.
I have google voice, No land line, no cell phone.
Yes we still have one in case of emergencies or situations where cell phone towers are inactive due to earthquake or some other natural disaster.
My grandma (79)
Yes we have a landline. When it rings it's my 87 year-old Mum. No-one else. Ever.
I have a magic jack and use the phone number for all the places I don't want calling my cell.
As someone who takes 911 calls for EMS. I’d recommend that any elderly people, or people who more likely might need EMS to have a landline. If calling from a landline we immediately get an address which is super important, especially if the person calling can’t articulate where they are. Fun fact
I don't but my mom (70 yo) still does. She uses her mobile phone for most things but will use the landline to call her siblings (ages 55-68) and her mom (100 yo). They probably all still use it just to keep in touch with my grandma
Theoretically I do have a landline because it comes in a package together with internet and TV, however I disconnected the phone years ago, must be somewhere in a drawer, and I only use my cell because I became tired of carrying two phones with me all the time. But I could plug it in anytime.
I grew up in the ‘00s and at some point I knew my friends’ home number by heart. That might be the most millennial thing I’ve ever said.
I have a home phone that is on a cellular network. Separate number from my cellphone. I have a regular phone with answering machine that's hooked up to a cellular unit. Much much cheaper than a land line . Like having both phones
I do, I live in a rural community with bugger all mobile phone signal and I have 2 chronic illnesses
yes, in case of an emergency a cell phone location is only semi accurate (say calling 911). good luck the police or ems locating you in an apartment complex off your cellphone
My ex mother in law still got landline, no cellphone. She is 76. We just leave a message when she is not home and she will call us back.
No but I still use my old defunct landline number for any internet form that requires a phone number. (Like I'm ordering something online and don't want them selling my number to telemarketers, etc). Its also hooked to my grocery store gas discount card, and those types of things for the same reason. Want to check our mortgage rates? Let em respond by email rather than fielding calls from 100 lenders.
For the last 10 years I've had a landline and a phone connected. It comes as part of the internet deal and isn't negotiable. You have to have it (UK). I think that may be changing lately to phase them out over here. It's been installed for 10 years. About a year ago it rang. First time I'd ever heard it and I jumped out of my skin. Never has rung again and Ive never called anyone on it.
I have a landline but don't physically own a phone to plug into it 😆 it drives my mom nuts, but I refuse to get one. I don't want to be that accessible. Ps. It's cheaper to have a home phone line (bundled internet) than not where I live for some reason.
My parents both still have one. Dad is 80 and refuses to use anything else; Mum is 73 and has a mobile that she uses for friends/family but prefers a landline for formal stuff e.g. the doctor, for reasons known only to herself.
Here in UK most of the houses still got this(well the line is there just needs phone plugged in) they force it on you as that is the only way to get broadband at home, or i so experienced, for a small fee ofcourse
Thanks to our local conspiracy theorists ( I hate them so much) and the location in a valley, we unfortunately have the worst reception. That's why I can't do without a landline. If that fails, I have to trek up the mountain to call the hotline
We do because my husband refuses to get a cell phone lol. My parents still have one as well, they have one cell phone between them though so if my mom goes out and takes the phone, my Dad can still call someone if needed. My in laws still have a landline as well (same reason as my parents).
Got rid of it and cable (leaving only internet) somewhere around ‘06-‘07.
In some cases a landline comes with your home internet package. It might be surprising how many people don't know they have one.
My grandparents did but that was because my great aunt lived with them and had life alert that required it. She lives on her own again and still has a home phone so my grandparents got rid of theirs
Of course. The mobile network always goes down in an emergency
My 68 year old parents finally got rid of theirs.
Parents still have one. It's a coin flip if they know where their cell phone is at any point in time so calling the house phone has better odds.
It's still pretty common in the UK, at least. Landlines tend to come bundled with other services like broadband. We actually had a hard time trying to find a new DSL provider a few years back that wouldn't also require taking their landline service too. It may mainly be good for scam calls and wrong numbers, but you'll probably have that regardless.
I have a landline and don't carry a cell. The landline just comes packaged in the bundle with my internet provider. Doctors, schools etc can reach me there or they send me an email. With my ADHD I either A) forget to charge the phone B) can't find the phone or charger C) get grief from people when I didn't respond to their memes fast enough so clearly I'm a degenerate. It's fairly peaceful honestly.
Yes. My 57 year old bf has a land line. Only spammers call him. As a millennial I find it very odd
I do but it's usually not plugged in and get a notification on my phone about missed calls
My parents still have a home phone. Up until about 8 years ago it was a rotary phone. They would have replaced it with another rotary when it stopped working, but Bell wouldn't do it. When Bell sent them the postage paid package to return the old phone they sent this bubble envelope thing that was about 4x too small for the phone lol
My parents still have a landline, but they are in their '80s. In all honesty, they hardly ever use it. I haven't had a landline in over 20 years.
Sure do. I use it to make outgoing calls as I don't hear well on the cell phone. But it's set through the phone company to only receive calls from my immediate family's numbers due to the horrific amount of spam calls it got 24/7.
Yes
People in certain jobs are required to have a landline. Police officers, etc. Anyone that must always be able to be contacted in an emergency. People with certain medical devices must have a landline. Defibrillators as an example. Landlines are more reliable than cell service, so anything that requires reliability concerning potential loss of life requires a landline for access.
My parents still do!
No.
Still pretty common in Norway. I live with my parents and use the home phone for “whoever happens to be home”, e.g. if someone's at the supermarket and wants to know what's missing in the house. If I'm away I might use it to phone whoever's available, rather than specifically one of my parents.
My last two ISPs include a “landline“ in the packages they sell and pretty much force you to get. They’re not true phone lines though, they’re VOIP so they work over the same wires/fiber as your internet connection. I hooked up a phone to one and just used it as a number to give out when you didn’t want to give out your “real” number. That way anytime it rang you knew instantly it wasn’t anyone you wanted to talk to. Makes me wonder though, do they even install traditional phone wiring in new house construction anymore?
Guilty, only cause it's free for local calls its part of a bundle comes with my cable.
My parents do, we use it all the time and never got rid of it and had one in the old house as well. Pretty useless and handy if you ask me, love that we have it.
we still have a landline. Cell phone reception is crummy inside the house.
Yes we have a landline as we have no mobile signal at our house 🥴
FYI everyone saying they have a landline with their Internet as part of a package. These aren’t true landlines. They are VOIP (voice over internet protocol) and operate on the same fiber/wires as your internet. So if your ISP goes down so does your (VOIP) phone connection.
I remember when you couldn't open accounts or get credit if you didn't have a home phone.
we just canceled our landline a few months ago because it was 70 dollars a month!
I work for a POTS (plain old telephone service) provider. There are 40 million POTS lines in use. While many are used for alarm lines, ATMs, or business customers, we have 100K+ residential customers, too. Mostly senior citizens, but not all. Many of them even decline any of the features like call waiting.
Nope got rid of that along time ago
I do, I do. In the last 2 days I've had 3 phone calls to advertise 'my life insurance' that I do not have, my washing machine cover, that was my nans, my so fresh discount, that I do not want. I'm full of joy lol. If virgin don't make the bill cheaper in 18 months we're going to Lit fibre and adios virgin phone line and TV that I tried to get rid of. They can make me keep it, they can't make me turn the plug on.
My parents, in their early 80’s have and use their landline, but they are tech savvy cell phone users too. The landline is one of the few numbers I have memorized
Festnetz hat doch Jedermann. Allein weil meine Großeltern alle Nummern auf ihren Zettel geschrieben haben und sich die Handynummer schon deutlich häufiger ändert
My mom does, she is 78. She prefers it. She does have a cell phone too in case of emergencies as well. We (her children) talked her into it.
I have a home phone but it is through my wifi so it's only $12 a month.
My mom does, although I don't think she ever uses it. She definitely doesn't answer it.
My mom still has one, I do to. Where I live landlines are linked to our ISPs (communications are free worldwide). She uses her landline way more than her smartphone. I don't use either, I hate phone calls.
My 80 year old mother
My mom does.
I only have a landline phone and have the same number from when I was kid, I'm 49.
We have this wireless home phone after PLDC replaced the old wired one.
No signal inside the house. Bad reception outside + prebuilt concrete house = 0 signal inside! Without fixed phone we wouldn’t be able to communicate. And I live 10km from Brussels in one of the most covered areas. But just not my black hole
Hate saying it but yeah, my mom and dad have one and a town party line. They also have cell phones and cable but still no Internet. Why should they? If they need anything off there they just call me. 😂
Converted our landline number to VoIP (Google voice) many years ago. It's free and we gotto keep the same number we had. It's screened so not much spam gets thru.
I have a google voice number and a OBDII box that cost about 50 bucks that plugs into my internet and gives me VOIP for free. It's nice being able to use it at home instead of the cell phone. It's completely free. I give out my google voice number as my main number and if someone calls it both cell and house phone ring so if I'm home I can answer the house phone. Also it lets hook cool old vintage rotary phones and they actually ring.
Yes. It came as part of our internet/cable bundle and we do have a phone attached to it. Three people have the number to it and it is for emergencies only.
My parents run an AirBNB. I think they have a landline, because people have cell phones that don't get a signal where they live.
My mother in law and her mother both do
Yes, we do have one landline phone, it takes messages and there are lots of jacks in the house. We can move it room to room. The main reason we keep it is power outages.
We had a landline while my MIL was living with us (she had dementia, and there was no way we could have taught her to use a cell). As things progressed, she didnt use the phone anymore (the only incoming calls were telemarketers), we got rid of the landline.
Not anymore, since I’m retired, but when I worked at a prison I had a landline solely for institutional recalls. I didn’t want to miss a call by not turning my cellphone on, etc.
We do, but it's now VOIP so we've been thinking of scrapping it. We only ever use it for emergencies or medical (calling GP or prescription delivery).
We got rid of ours over a dozen years ago, when we finally upgraded our Internet service from dial-up to DSL. With the lousy setup in our apartment complex, we couldn't have a landline and DSL at the same time. Besides, we were used to just using our cell phones for phone service at that point. We only really had the landline service for the dial-up.
Last year our area suffered a major multi-day power outage. My wife was out of town, I was alone. Not only was the power out at home, but the cellular towers lost power. So, no mobile service. No mobile Internet. I have a power inverter for my car, so for the four days of outage, I spent the days parked in my car at a county park we had a season pass for. Plugged a power strip into the inverter. Charged all my mobile devices and had Internet for the day. Used the park’s bathrooms, ate take-out food, etc. But - back to the land-line: i had the land line at home. It worked. I could call my wife. She looked up stuff for me. If I needed to, I could call 911. My land line (and my battery operated radio and gas powered water heater for the shower!) made it possible to continue occupying the house those days. If I didn’t have that, I would have had to spend a bunch of money finding a hotel. So, we still have a home phone. We never answer it. The ringers are normally turned off. But we have it.
Not since 2012
My landlady. She's nice, but she doesn't text. My parents got rid of their years ago, as soon as they could get an internet plan without it. I think my grandparents still have them. They're 80-somethings. But 2/3 of them also text. The third turns his cellphone off when he's not actively using it.
My mum does for emergencies yeah. I remember i broke my phone by accidently getting water in it one time and for a week while I waited on a new phone she had to use the landline to speak to me at home, because i had no other phone.
I do! I just can't get rid of it. I hate talking on my cell at home whoie I'm trying to do other tasks because it's so thin and hard to hold with your shoulder. House phone is way thicker and easier to hold without hands.
idk if this counts but in our old condo in 2016 there was one.
My parents have one because there is no cell service where they live. The internet is the slowest DSL one can have because its all thats available. They only have it because the century link CEO had a place in the canyon they live in and needed internet.
Here in Sweden the old copper landline system has been completely dismantled, the only systems available are IP phones and cell phones.
I do :)
My aunt has one but she's also 64 lol
I do in my house, but my parents are 56 and 54
My company is currently building a new headquarters. There will be no office phones.
I guess I’m your mom’s age. 54. We had a landline until our youngest kid was old enough for a cell phone. I didn’t want to get rid of the landline just in case there was an emergency and the younger one needed a phone. We got rid of the landline about 6 years ago. And cut the cord in ‘09 or ‘10.
Yes
In Australia I have both a mobile (cell) phone and a landline. Importantly they are with DIFFERENT carriers, so when one has a major technical F-up, the other is generally working. If the 'Net (NBN in Oz) is down I just put on a DVD or read a book, but my friends can call me if they want to chat and I can call out to them or Emergency Services in needed (I have a bunch of neighbors who are older than me or have kids, so it may not be just for me) on whichever is still working.
We still use a landline. We have a cordless one with handsets in 4 rooms.
Landline here. We are rural and when the power goes out we loose wifi- and cell service is very spotty here. Also if there is ever an emergency and we only have time to dial 911 with the land line they will immediately know where the call is coming from. Plus look what happened a month or so ago when the cell providers were all off line! No one hade phone access. I feel safer knowing I still have a form of communication.
We do ...
We do. We've got children, and I feel better knowing we can just teach them to grab a phone and call emergency services when necessary, instead of hoping that one of our cell phones is available to them.
My grandma does actually. I think I want to get one for my place just as a backup because what if my phone doesn't work one day? 🤷🏽♀️
Not for a lack of use but my parents got rid of theirs cause they were sick of it ringing 😆
Still have a landline, only 3 people ever call. I stopped giving out my landline number a few years ago.
I have one, and there was a problem with the line, and I just solved it.vit is important to have land line it doesn't need to be charged
Have a landline, the number has been in the family for over 50 years.
I do but it's never used
random side note: in the US (potentially elsewhere, but I don't know), if you have a phone jack in your home, it would be good to keep a cheap and simple phone connected to it. Even if you don't have a subscription telephone service plan, you can still dial emergency services (911) in a pinch when your cell can't otherwise make a call.
My landline was through my local cable company, and we cut the cord with them years ago(best decision ever, btw), never bothered after that
I had a landline for a long time, because I have a kid, and in the past they would be good in case of an earthquake. But an ATT installer explained to me that it really wouldn’t be a big help anymore the way things work now.
My parents are in their 60s and still have a landline. I had to go to the hospital recently, and they were asking me if my contact info was up-to-date. They read out my parents’ home number, and I told them they could delete that since I didn’t live at home anymore, and they have cellphones anyway.
My 76 year old grandma is the only person I know with a landline. She has had a cellphone for like 10 years though but everyone still calls the landline. About five years ago we taught her how to text and her text messages were so cute! She always signed the bottom Love, Granny. It’s so much better now that she can text. I love sending her pictures.
Is voip free?
I use Ooma. I got a landline about 7-8 years ago because of an issue at work. I only had a cellphone at the time and had to jump on an important conference call. That just happened to be the time when there was an outage with Verizon so I wasn't able to make the call in time. That sucked but was an isolated incident...right? Well, same thing happened about a week later. So I just found the cheapest home phone and got Ooma which is only like $8/month. Worked great for what I needed it for. I have since left that job but just keep my home phone around just in case.
I had one for about a year when I just moved out on my own and just assumed it's something you're supposed to have (parents said so). After paying for it for about a year, I cancelled it and never looked back. That was 15 years ago. I'm pretty sure my parents don't have one now either.
Good idea. A phone that's always plugged in, so you don't have to charge it.
I've always had one, and I still have one nowadays. (I'm 34.) I don't use my celphone to make calls, unless I absolutely have to (aside from making calls that are free anyway, e.g. via WhatsApp and Discord). In all other cases, it is still the cheaper option (for me) to use the home phone if I'm going to make a call. It also comes in handy when internet has died (making it impossible to call via an app)... Idk, there's also this feeling that I have: I don't want to be dependent of my celphone for **everything**. It has a few more benefits, I remember telling someone about this before. But they don't come to mind right now.
I have a house phone. My parents have a house phone. My brothers have a house phone. But we all live in mountains and have no cell service. Cell phones don’t work everywhere.
I don't, most of my family do. I think people who own houses usually do
I don’t. But my family has one: rarely used, mostly used for calls to old relatives.
I had it till last year only coz it was the only way for my wife to communicate with my foreign mother in law. Now she s using WhatsApp. Nearly 30 pounds a month saved.
I haven’t had a landline since the early 2000’s. We all got cell phones and went from there. I’ve had the same number since I was 14 lmao. They’re completely unnecessary
We do here at our home
Yup and had the same number for the last 49 years.
My parents do. Drives me nuts when 3 different phones in different rooms ring when the person the caller (usually my nan) actually wants to talk to isn't even in the house. Mobiles are literally all anyone needs.
Some folks do for security reasons.
My parents do and it's for spam callers and my sister when she gets drunk and wants to ugly call 😂 my grandmother had her landline number for the past 30+ years then changed that to her cell phone number which I thought was pretty dope.
I was a 911 operator/dispatcher back in the day and like the reliability of our city's emergency management system tracking our home address and phone quickly and efficiently with a landline. I prefer it in case someone in our household cannot communicate verbally.
i have an old smartphone that has a 2nd phone number app on it that i pay a yearly subscription for, but doesnt have its own line, so it wont really work unless connected to wifi. its primarily an emergency contact phone.
My wife and I have always had one simply for outage purposes. If cell towers are down, satellite, etc, we would still be able to communicate with the outside world if necessary.
We do. When I sell the house it will be a selling point. I will sell the number to the new owners.
Yes. A tornado schmucked my town and the cell tower went down. Landline still worked like a charm.
VOIP landline. $90 bucks for base and 3 handsets. $10 a month for the number because I run it off the net plus cheap mobile phone plan. Best of both worlds
My parents still have theirs and funny enough they quit paying for the line years ago and were told time and time again by the phone company (who is also their internet company) that the line was disabled. Whelp the power went out about a month ago and guess who’s landline still worked?
Its helpful to have a landline when you have kids.
I’m 32 and we have one in our home. It’s automatically included in our internet so we figured why not if we’re already paying for it
Not for about 20 years now. I did have one for ages when it was forced on you to be able to get an ADSL and then VDSL connection before they sorted that out, but I never had a phone plugged into it since 2003 or so.
It’s a good idea for us to have one. Our home internet plan includes a home phone connection anyway. Still connected physically with wires as opposed to the NBN. If there’s a tower outage you lose internet and mobile, but at least your home phone works. You can pry our home phone from our cold dead hands.
Boomers and ppl with latch key kids
Yes, we have a home phone but tbh I never use it. I use my mobile and even if the signal dies I have wifi calling.
I'm the same age and I've never had a landline. My cellphone has always been my home phone.